5 comments about Albert Hadley: The Story of America's Preeminent Interior Designer.

1. This was a great book. The pictures are wonderful and it makes an excellent coffee table book. The pictures of Brooke Astor's library alone, are worth buying the book. It is nicely written and I liked the fact that Hadley himself collaborated on this book. It gives a nice insight on one of America's best decorators. Perfect book for giving as a gift to anyone who is interested in Hadley or just a fan of Interior Decorating.



2. Very fast shipping for Xmas time. Happy with book. It was a gift and the person I gave it to loved it.



3. Not only does Adam Lewis' biography of Albert Hadley allow us to take a retrospective look at the great man's life and career, he allows us do this on the most part through Hadley's own words. "Albert Hadley: The story of America's preeminent interior designer" is an important work about the dean of American decorating, and undoubtedly one of the greatest designers in the world today. Having studied under Van Day Treux at NY Parsons school and then going on to work for the top firms of the day - Mc Millen and then with Sister Parish before their eventual partnership of Parish-Hadley, Albert Hadley's clients were America' wealthy and elite. He has created some of the most famous, stylish, chic and absolutely timeless interiors, and the photographs of these will make this book a monograph in my library that I will refer to and study meticulously time and time again.



4. Great written history however the visual presentation of his work is poorly represented.



5. If one is at all interested in interior design and decoration, then this book is a must have. Albert Hadley owns "style" and "good taste". The photos in this book are great and it is a very interesting read. He is such an interesting talent that anyone at all interested in design would love this book.

4 comments about Some Place Like Home: Using Design Psychology to Create Ideal Places.

1. "Some Place Like Home" is a groundbreaking book for the field of Design Psychology. As an Interior Design student I realize that my study is constantly subordinate to the field of Environmental Psychology and the two are interrelated. Dr. Israel is a pioneer of this field and I would recommend her work to anyone wanting to further their understanding of this discipline. She is dead on when she states, " The idea of environmental autobiography has been around for a long time, so has environmental psychology. Unfortunately these ideas have not been effectively communicated to the public at large, or to architects. Perhaps this book will help convince people that there is a powerful connection between past, present and future sense of home and place and that this connection can be explored through...Design Psychology."



2. A great book, very easy reading but also very inspirational in the sense that you are handed very usable tools for communication with (potential) clients. A logical thaught-process which needed to be put to paper: how to create a design which is not only great, but also gives te person who has to live there a sense of home!



3. I'm rarely uncertain about my reviews but I am with this one. I've gone through Toby's recommended process of discovery and I think it is partially valid but either incomplete or on the wrong track. Her questionnaires and analysis of past experiences with "home" are the basis of her theory and book.
   
   From Martin Seligman's Authentic Happiness "It is difficult to find even small effects of childhood events on adult personality, and there is no evidence at all of large effects." (I happen to be reading this article with this quote, I haven't read the book yet: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-1793873_1,00.html.)
   
   I just don't see a childhood environment influence in my design preferences. I suspect that we are influenced much more by what we are exposed to that we remember. If a child sees a dome in a house and happens to remember 30 years later that a dome can be used in a house design then that designer is more likely to use a dome. My understanding of Toby's theory is that the designer would use a dome feature if they had a happy environment with a dome in the home in their previous experience. I see this as more coincidental than part of the psychological make-up of the designer.
   
   I grew up in an old California mining town and my parent's house had bats in the attic. The bats were amusing but I don't recall the urge to design my homes with accomodations for bats.
   
   An Amazon review is no place to get into a full academic discussion but I believe I've seen enough decent research that works against her theory and that my personal experience combined with her approach does not work at all. It would take a book to refute her theory properly but at least don't accept it without question.
   
   What value has this book, theory, and process to architectural and interior design? I found that the insight into the thinking and histories of the three superb architects she interviews was worth my time and money. Also, her process should work at least some of the time, and possibly more often than not. It can't hurt to know the client better and her technique is not burdensome.
   
   I recommend reading the book if you are doing design and want another theoretical reference point.
   
   - jim



4. This book is wonderfully written and easily understood by those directly and indirectly involved with interior design and architecture. The author, Toby Israel, leads you through her pioneering ideas behind design psychology with an interesting format that includes narration, interviews and exercises. You'll discover how your own past history of place - where you grew up, the type of home you lived in and even where you went to school - can affect choices you make regarding dwellings and workplaces now and in your future.
   The exercises throughout the book help readers uncover influences from their past and can help them create successful environments for themselves or for clients. This book is a must have for anyone seeking to create satisfying designs with tools we inherently possess but too often ignore.

2 comments about The Complete Idiot's Guide to Designing your Own Home (Complete Idiot's Guide to).

1. Striking out on designing one's own house is a lonely prospect. I read every book I could get my hands on. Most provide cursory information, which left me hungry. This book goes into much greater detail on the process than any other. So start with it and then wander over to [...] and go to the home forum. That is where you'll get a major education from people who are building homes whether with book plans, and architect, or their own design.



2. This book is a very helpful, easy to understand, and comprehensive guide to home design and renovation. Mr. Drapaca's excellent sense of esthetics, great negotiation skills and committment to high quality projects evidently inspired the content of this book. We had the pleasure to work with Mr. Drapaca on the renovation of our apartment and found in the book many of the things we learned thanks to his advice.

3 comments about Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, Second Edition.

1. This text provides down-to-earth information concerning CPTED for the security practitioner. Some material in the first few chapters is repeated excessively. At times the author's opinions are louder than the factual text, detracting from the material. However, the appendicies are excellent and practical.



2. The CPTED Strategies introduced and well laid out in this book, establish a foundation for creative target hardening and risk transference.
   To suggest as one critic does, that this is "low level" stuff is to miss the point entirely.
   As a security consultant, I have applied these concepts to a variety of corporate settings with positive results.
   If someone is simply looking for standard "templates" without the capacity to creatively apply the ideals this is not the book.
   If you are serious about your work, it is essential.



3. This book has pretty low level info.

   If you are looking for ways to secure a high level executive's office suite using the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, forget it. The examples in this book are more at the level of bus stops.

   Hopefully the authors will update their information with modern design scenarios.

5 comments about ManSpace: A Primal Guide to Marking Your Territory.

1. This book is very enjoyable. I purchased it for my husband. He likes it a lot. It has tons of photos and interesting stories about each man's space. The only complaint is that many of the man spaces belong to men with money to spend. Still, it is a very good book.



2. ManSpace is a call to action for men: a call to build a 'personal space' outside of the usual woman-controlled home, where you can keep your stuff without fear of its being converted to a 'more useful' nursery or sewing room. MANSPACE: A PRIMAL GUIDE TO MARKING YOUR TERRITORY can be a recording studio, a workshop, or more. Men are invited to view sample houses and homes which reflect 'manspaces', from music rooms to campy man-oriented gadget-filled abodes. Samples from all types of 'manspaces' appear in full color and offer inspiration, insights and a range of options, making MANSPACE perfect for any general-interest lending collection.



3. An excellent book, long overdue. I highly recommend; you will enjoy.



4. This book makes a great gift for the man who has everything. Great ideas for men to carve out their own space in a home usually decorated by women.



5. A cool book to get ideas from. Fun to read. A lot of cats in the book obviously have much more disposable income than the average joe looking for a place to call their own but it has some cool ideas. Worth checking out!

3 comments about Facility Piping Systems Handbook.

1. Excellent resource for MEP, plumbing and piping engineers. Provides thorough descriptions of pressure losses, treatments, correct valve uses and lots more. This book, when coupled with a CAD pipe library (such as Hercule Design's ANSI one), has all a designer needs. The inclusion of metric formulae is also most welcome.



2. All the basic information on pumps, compressors, piping, plumbing, and any kind of specialty equipment used for any facility you could imagine.
   
   There is everything from piping connection and configuration of an underground gasoline tank to details on the design of animal laboratories. The book is full of charts and solid recommendations on materials and methods.
   
   Even if you think you know a chapter's subject extremely well, this book will have new and useful information that will extend your knowledge considerably.
   
   If you do mechanical/piping design for commercial, industrial, or healthcare facilities this book is an incredible buy.



3. This is one of the finest books about facilities systems I have ever found. It's rather banal title is misleading, because this book covers every aspect of the very complicated piping systems that serve institutional, industrial and even residential buildings. To give you an example, the chapter on compressed gas systems explains the working mechanisms of 10 types of compressor motors, and then goes on to explain silencers, aftercoolers, filters (and how to select filters) air dryers (with explanations and diagrams of the verious types), lubricators, air compressor drives, pressure regulation, cooling water, hose and fittings. Then in the same chapter it explains specialized features of compressed gas for light industrial uses, laboratories, and hospitals. And this is just one chapter. There are another 18 chapters with similar levels of detail and comprehensiveness, including vacuum systems, site utilities, general plumbing, waste, even animal care facility systems. This is a terrific book.

4 comments about Havana Then and Now (Then & Now).

1. It was wonderful to see Habana in the days of my grandparents and parents.I remember so much of my short [8yrs] in Habana.I left in 1960 and returned for a visit in 1991. It was great to see the comparisons of the pictures in the book so artfully done. Very much like the comparisons in my mind when I went back. The only thing missing was pictures of greater Habana.All the surounding suburbs also have their story.



2. THIS IS AN INTERESTING BOOK TO SAY THE LEAST. I HAVE SEEN MANY OTHER PICTURES OF THE PRE CASTRO TIMES AND THEY ARE BY FAR MUCH MORE ELGANT AND BOAST A MUCH MORE PROSPEROUS PRE CASTRO TIME. IT IS NOT FAIR TO USE SUCH ANTIQUATED PICTURES TO FURTHER USE WHAT THE CASTRO GOVERNMENT HAS GIVEN THEM TO COVER A SOCIAL AND POLITIAL DISASTER.
   STILL, NO ONE SAID IT HAD TO BE THE YESTERDAY PICTURES FROM A SPECIFIC TIME SO ALL IN ALL IT IS AN INTERESTING BOOK AND I WOULD NOT CALL IT BAD BECAUSE EVEN DURING THE PERIOD IN WHICH THESE BEFORE PICTURES WERE TAKEN STILL SHOWS CUBAN ARCHITECTURE.



3. If you have an interest in the architecture of Havana and want a taste of what might welcome you if you visited there, this book is for you. Archival photos primarily from the early 1900s are matched with modern photos on the opposite page. It's nice to know there is a movement on now to save some of these historic gems and we get to see restorations. If you want to learn about politics, Cuban culture, or the countryside, you need to look elsewhere. This is about the history of the buildings, and by extension, the people who used them. The only improvement I would suggest would be to supply an approximate year with each of the old pictures.



4. I have a small booklet called "Remembering the Cuba we left" with color pictures of Cuba during the 1950s, it is old and I suppose long out of print, it does not contain that many pictures, but the pictures of Havana and the rest of the country are really good. Some were shot from the sky; others captured the life and people walking through the city, buildings, nightclubs, parks, monuments, countryside, etc. I have searched for more of these same pictures and others like them and have not been able to find them. They truly capture what Cuba was before the revolution. No other, not only Caribbean nation, but many Latin American nations didn't even come close. It was the 3rd best economy in the American continent after the U.S and Canada, and followed closely by Argentina. By 1958 Cuba was the most immigrated Latin American country, with the largest European emigration, and more Americans living in Cuba than Cubans in the U.S. Havana even had a China Town.
   
   This book is bad and I will tell you why, I have knowledge of the subject, and I am not stupid. The idea of these series of books is a "Then and Now" of cities, but when it came to do Havana they had a problem. (Says on the back of the book) They went straight to a present day government controlled Havana library in search of info and pictures of the past, that's the problem. Pictures of a prosperous 1950s Havana with commerce, billboards, and the largest middle class in Latin America walking the streets, they probably burned them a long time ago, or Castro has them in his closet. The past of Cuba is something the present communist system is not too interested in showing. There is no free press; all books, newspapers, and media are controlled by the mafia like communists, everything is a manipulation and lie that everyone has to repeat or else you get kicked in jail (the least).
   
   In this book all the pictures of the past are in black & white, and if this was not enough, about 98% of all the pictures of the past are from the mid 1800s to the 1920s, how clever are they. There is only one picture of 1958, about some Ferraris in the Havana Gran Prix, that's it. This way people don't see the pre-Castro days, and the modern day imposed poverty, decay, and ruins won't stand out as much. It will go against the millions Castro spends in promoting his "progressive" slavish system. It has worked in a way, every day I see more morons with Che Guevara shirts but none of them go to live in Cuba or any other communist country, after all. That's where all the bla bla bla is cut short. Anyhow, this is the story here, this book has no photographic value, it will not show you the height of the beauty it ones was, it will not transport you anywhere, nor make a true comparison. You can find better pictures on a web search than on this book, truly. There have been other Havana picture books that although photographed in the present still give you a better idea of what it once was. Robert Polidori: Havana could be one of them, who knows?

3 comments about Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction.

1. The great architects Vitruvius and Palladio devoted their lives to bringing architecture to life, by working from a powerful mastery of science, mathematics, and Universal laws. In a continuance of this heritage, Dr. Nikos A. Salingaros has used his contemporary genius in mathematical physics to architecture to create a collective body of work that sets forth scientific evidence showing the series of illogical and misleading failures of the Modern and Deconstruction movements.
   
   In this particular book "Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction," via a series of brilliant essays by himself, and with others, Dr. Salingaros exposes the low degree of organized complexity in Modernism and Deconstruction, and elegantly outlines their destructive and dangerous nature.
   
   Salingaros exposes the hideous cult atmosphere they created and the pseudo-intellectual theory that accompanied it, to sell their concepts and proposals. It is perfectly clear to the reader how such trickery, skillfully utilized, has unfortunately in this case allowed such distorted manifestations of architecture and urban planning to occur worldwide. He additionally makes clear how the practitioners, and propagandists of those movements, who force-fed ugly, monstrous and evil architecture upon the public, are themselves lacking scientific knowledge, and an understanding of the human soul.
   
   Utilizing an outstanding level of intellectual clarity and vigor, Dr. Salingaros shows once again that relying upon fact, history, and scientific analyses yields incredible results.



2. Salingaros's "Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction" is both like and unlike Tom Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House.
   
   Wolfe's book tells the story of a movement that begins with the European left's rejection of everything bourgeois, and ends with ugly but prestigious buildings built and financed by bourgeois kingpins of American capitalism.
   
   Salingaros's Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction likewise involves a European philosophy (or ideology, to be more precise) that has also created an architecture of sorts. But while Wolfe's book is journalistic and tells a story, Salingaros's is analytic and engaged. Salingaros means to change things.
   
   Anti-Architecture is structured as a series of letters, commentaries and meditations--most but not all of them written by Salingaros. The final chapter presents a conversation between the author and the architect Christopher Alexander.
   
   Salingaros clearly considers the deconstructivist theory behind post-modern architecture to be nonsensical. Whether post-modernists will find this insulting or not is less clear. If one's task is to de-construct reality, then no doubt nonsense performs the job as well as any other methodology.
   
   Deconstructivist intellectuals such as Derrida are usually associated with the left, and presumably Derrida himself considered himself of the left. Ideological systems, however, are remarkably similar, regardless of how they self-identify. The realm of the ideological slips easily from left to right and back again.
   
   Take, for example, the following self-description from the Deconstructivist Architecture show at the Museum of Modern Art: "The lurid overtones of violence and corruption are intentional; they are, in fact, central to the ethos of deconstructive architecture ... Disturb, torture, interrogate, contaminate, infect; these are the words [chosen] to explain and to praise deconstructive architecture" (Anti-Architecture, 122). Violence, torture, interrogation--sounds rather like a description of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay.
   
   Another section of the book surveys the thought and work of the post-modernist architect Bernard Tschumi. It was Tschumi who designed the Parisian "Parc de Villette" (which has been described by the Project for Public Spaces as among the world's most boring and unsuccessful parks). Now deconstruction, we are often told, is a kind of game, and certainly Tschumi has some very playful notions about deconstructivist architecture. In one theoretical work, for example, Tschumi regales his readers with tips from the Marquis de Sade on how, with a single sexual act, it is possible to simultaneously commit incest, sodomy and sacrilege. I'm not kidding.
   
   Deconstruction, in other words, leads to a dead-end. To his credit, Salingaros does more than dwell on what he opposes: he also seeks a way forward, and his efforts in this direction involve a sometimes uneasy conversation between the sacred and the scientific.
   
   There is neither time nor room here to properly develop this theme. To do it justice would require, at minimum, putting Salingaros's book in the context of all his other writings plus his many years collaboration with Christopher Alexander. For now, the following generalizations will have to suffice. Both Salingaros and Alexander have refused to engage in either nostalgia for a pre-scientific religiosity or in despairing acceptance of a meaningless mechanistic nature. Like the early-20th century French philosopher Simone Weil (whom everyone, in my opinion, should read carefully), they recognize that the beauty described by true science and the beauty described by true religiosity, are one and the same. They recognize that it is not the point of architecture to just theorize about this and that, and still less is it architecture's job to produce pretty baubles for elites. The task of architecture is to connect beauty with the everyday life of all those who work for a living. A life so lived is full of meaning at every moment.



3. Extract from a review in Vol 1, Issue 2 of Archnet--IJAR, July 2007
   
   In this book, Nikos A. Salingaros sets the stage for a new thinking about the current status of architecture. Twelve essays critically analyze evolutionary aspects of modernism and post-Modernism, while heavily criticizing the resulting end-style of these two movements: Deconstructivism. The main argument of this manuscript lies in Salingaros' belief that architectural deconstruction is not a new thing. It has started since the 1920s from the Bauhaus, the international style, and modernism, going through new brutalism and late and post modernism. Each of these "-ISMS" is regarded as a cult that had tremendous negative impacts on they way in which we think about or approach architecture in pedagogy and practice. Salingaros argues, and rightly so, that deconstructivists have disassociated themselves from the lessons derived from history and precedents, while distancing themselves from basic human needs and cultural contexts.
   
   One should note his criticism of the critics, the articulate and fancy rhetoric and writings of Charles Jencks and Bernard Tschumi. He points out that Jencks' understanding and use of scientific concepts to justify and celebrate deconstructivist architecture is simply superficial. On the other hand, Bernard Tschumi's two major writings titled "The Manhattan Transcripts" and "Architecture and Disjunction" were closely examined by Salingaros. He concluded that Tschumi's work is a collection of meaningless images that resembles advertising and a false claim of knowledge of mathematics in analogizing it to architectural form.
   
   The other ten essays offer eloquent and convincing arguments against such a destructive attitude of deconstructivism and deconstructivists. However, three of these should be highlighted. The essays titled "Derrida Virus", "Background Material for the Derrida Virus", and "Death, Life and Libeskind" eloquently show how Derrida's notion of deconstructivism became a dangerous virus, which keep reproducing itself infinitely. Derrida, an Algerian-born French philosopher founded such a notion in literary criticism, and described it as "a method for analyzing texts based on the idea that language is inherently unstable and shifting, and that the reader rather than author is central in determining the meaning" (Derrida, 1973). While his work was heavily criticized by prominent linguists and philosophers including Noam Chomsky, it found listening receptive ears in the architectural community, a typical habit of many name architects who run after slogans and strange notions that help them to philosophize and theorize in order to justify their work.
   
   Metaphorically, the virus has killed almost all connections to the past, to humanity, and to context. The resulting ills are manifested in many cities, but the trauma is well articulated in the work of Daniel Libeskind in the Ground Zero Proposal, the Seattle Public Library, and the Berlin Holocaust Museum. Salingaros shows how the rhetoric surrounding the claims of Libeskind on the emotional experience of the Ground Zero proposal are nothing but negative. In this respect, a reference needs to be made to university campuses that are supposed to convey constructive messages about the future of learning, research, and humanity; they are calling deconstructivists to destruct their learning environments. This is clearly evident in the work of Antoine Predock in the McNamara Alumni Center of the University of Minnesota, and the work of Frank Gehry's Wiseman Art Museum of the same University. Notably, Gehry's work is invading many university campuses including Case Western Reserve University through its School of Business, and the University of Cincinnati through its Center for Molecular Studies. University campuses are intentionally conveying "deconstructive" messages.
   
   Undoubtedly, this manuscript is a voice of logic and reason against anti-architecture norms, and the destructive attitudes of their followers. I would add my voice to other reviewers of this manuscript: that it must be a mandatory reading in schools of architecture worldwide. Salingaros' call for going against those attitudes and regaining our interest in solutions to human problems needs to be adopted. The manuscript's thrust for re-associating ourselves to the near and distant past -- depending on who we are and the cultural context in which we operate -- deserves special attention by both academics and practitioners.
   
   Ashraf Salama, Ph.D.
   Professor of Architecture

4 comments about Build Your Own Stonehenge (Running Press Mini Kits).

1. this little model is very well done and when assembled it looks like the real thing. Very enjoyable indeed.



2. so much detail went into the creation of this product! I'm so impressed with it I'll be buying it for friends as well! Anyone who loves miniatures will go nuts for this tiny kit!



3. Yes, it's tiny. It's supposed to be tiny, that's the point. The whole thing fits in a tiny box, it's the same with the rest of the Running Press Mini Kits. But, like most of their other kits, this is a lot of fun and really cool. You get a tiny model Stonehenge to build and display in your home/office/whatever. If you're quirky, eccentric, or just into this kind of thing then you'll love this. I do!



4. Pay close attention to the Product Dimensions: 3.2 x 3 x 1.3 inches. It's very small, with TINY pieces.

1 comments about The Complete Book of Home, Site and Office Security.

1. The Complete Book of Home, Site, and Office Security provides the reader with an excellent overview of security; from locks, to alarms, to lighting, to CCTV, and more. Whether you are a homeowner interested in adding some additional security to your home, or a security professional wanting a basic professional reference, this book is an excellent choice.
   
   The book is easy to read for someone with no background in security, yet contains enough technical information to make it valuable for the security professional. The author, Mr. Phillips, is the author of several other security books (all of which I enjoyed) and is more than qualified to write on this topic.